A CD Tales Christmas, various artists (Warner Special Products)

Here's another Elton John-connected holiday collection, this one distributing half the funds from its sale to Elton's AIDS Foundation. The company CD Tales apparently was in the business of putting together music compilations (they're defunct), and this appears to be their first holiday effort. Elton's "Step Into Christmas" appears here, along with Better Than Ezra's "Merry Christmas Eve," Remy Zero's "Someday at Christmas," "I Want an Alien For Christmas" by Fountains of Wayne, XTC's "Thanks For Christmas," The Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping," Sun 60's "Mary X-mess," "25th December" by Everything But the Girl, and other cuts by Chris Stamey, Cocteau Twins, Pretenders and Matthew Sweet, d.b.a. Buzz of Delight. Not a particularly rare bunch of tunes, but if you don't have them, they're all here. This 2003 collection is long gone; the only reference to it online links right back here.